Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government is promoting a "maternity income" bill that proposes aid of 1,000 euros (about NZ$1,800) for five years to Italian women who reject abortion.

Meloni (pictured) says payments would target women who could not otherwise cope financially with their pregnancy or their child's needs in the early years.

The bill is scheduled to be introduced next week.

Goal - to reduce abortion

Abortion was legalised in Italy in 1978 under Law 194.

Senator Maurizio Gasparri says his bill aims to reduce abortions motivated by the financial hardships of pregnant mothers, based on Article 5 of Italy's Law 194.

He says his bill offers "not only moral but also financial support" for pregnant women who are struggling financially..

"Let's defend life!"

While Meloni has pledged not to change Italy's abortion law, she says her pro-life measures aim to "guarantee women the possibility of choosing an alternative, offering an active role by public institutions in order to remove the financial causes that can push a woman to abort".

In April this year she approved a package of measures to curb abortion.

Among these measures, the Italian Parliament allowed volunteers from pro-life associations access to abortion centres.

The volunteers guarantee assistance to mothers who wish to abort their unborn children.

What's on offer

Mothers who wish to apply for the support must have an Indicator of Equivalent Economic Situation (ISEE) of less than 15,000 euros (about NZ$28,000).

They must also be Italian citizens and reside in Italy.

In addition to the sums allocated for the first pregnancy and the child's first five years, the bill provides for an increase of 50 euros (about NZ$90) per month starting with the second child.

The bill also proposes an additional 100 euros (about NZ$180) up to the age of 18 in the event that the child has a disability.

Finance for the proposed income support would come from a maternity income fund. Meloni says that from this year the fund would receive 600 million euros annually.

Source

• CNA

The End of Life Choice Act, which legalised euthanasia in 2019, has insufficient safeguards, Te Pati says.

It wants to amend the Act to ensure disabled people are not targeted.

The moves are part of Te Pati's new wide-ranging "disability policy".

Te Pati's co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, says the policy responds to systemic racism and the country's inequitable treatment of disabled people.

"We are committed to being a movement that leaves nobody behind and being a voice for those who are constantly being marginalised in Aotearoa."

Te Pati Maori is committed to ensuring disabled people are treated with dignity and respect, with their rights upheld, she says.

It also intends to establish a Mana Haua (Disability Rights) Authority to direct 25 percent of all disability funding.

In addition, the new policy package aims to ensure Maori disability groups are included when all disability-related policy and legislation is being developed.

Addressing the unequal support disabled people receive from the ACC and the Ministry of Health is another policy feature.

Currently, people born with disabilities receive less support from the Ministry of Health than people with accident-related disabilities whom the ACC supports and building standard reform is on the agenda to ensure they are fully accessible.

Currently, only commercial buildings need to provide accessibility for disabled people. Residential builds do not.

Te Pati's policy proposes retrofitting existing State homes to meet universal design standards to ensure they are wheelchair-accessible.

Finally, income support abatement rates for disabled people earning an income would be abolished. So would reductions in income support when disabled people enter relationships.

Source

• Stuff

In 2004, CPAG explained what was so wrong in a publication called Cut Price Kids and has been campaigning to fix WFF ever since.

After the WEAG report in 2018, the Government began its widely anticipated WFF review. We participated in good faith along with many other NGOs. Our recommendations are found here.

The main part of the WFF is the per child per week Family Tax Credit that goes to all caregiver in low-income families on the same basis. This is the best tool to ensure income adequacy.

The second component, confusingly named the ‘In Work Tax Credit ' is added to the Family Tax Credit weekly payment, but only when parents are eligible on paid work criteria.

While fixed hours of work no longer have to be met, if there is any benefit or part benefit paid, then the children of those parents cannot have any of the In Work Tax Credit.

As a result about 200,000 of the worst-off children in New Zealand miss out on a substantial part of WFF - at least $72.50 a week.

The reasoning has been that paid work is the only way out of poverty and therefore their parents need an incentive to work.

In the review of WFF, cabinet approved as the starting point these two key deeply contradictory objectives:

• to make work pay by supporting families with dependent children, so that they are rewarded for their work effort
• to ensure income adequacy, with a focus on low and middle-income families with dependent children to address issues of poverty, especially child poverty

Parents are not on benefits for fun.

Their children are four times more likely than other children to live in poverty — that means going without the basics … not enough money after rent to pay for school uniforms, and the power bill let alone nutritious food.

Many of these families are sole parents, many have disabled children, or there is sickness in the family, few job opportunities and lack support of all kinds.

Even if they manage a part-time job, their part benefit makes their children ineligible for the In Work Tax Credit.

When a payment to a caregiver is designed to be enough to address child poverty but it is withheld from the worst-off families who are on benefits to create a work incentive, the result is deeper child poverty not more parents off-benefit.

Phase one of the WFF review decided to focus on the second objective, and in the 2022 budget, increases were announced to the Family Tax Credit.

This was largely a delayed inflation catch-up implemented from 1 April 2023, and was soon eroded in the cost of living crisis.

Most unfortunately, as part of the same package, low-income families in paid work lost their Working for Families more quickly as the rate of clawback (or abatement) rose from 25 percent to 27 percent for each dollar earned over the very low fixed threshold of $42,700.

So much for work incentives!

Thomas Coughlan had previously outlined in the NZ Herald how serious thought had been given pre-budget 2023 to fixing flaws in the WFF design. He reported that in the WFF review

"Anti-poverty groups said this tax credit "should be paid to all families and not just those who are off a benefit and in paid work".

"These stakeholders argued that the payment was discriminatory or unfair, particularly given children were unable to choose whether their parents were working.

"They also emphasised the need to value other contributions people make, such as caring for children or voluntary work,"

So now we have part two of the WFF review.

May be this is Labour's way of putting that tortuous review to bed.

They announced yesterday (13th August) that if elected the In Work Tax Credit will be increased by $25 a week from 1 April 2024 creating an even bigger gap between children in families on benefits and other low and middle income families in paid work.

The threshold stays fixed at $42,700 and there are no automatic indexation provisions. However, the threshold will rise to $50,000 by 2026, just in time for the next election. The rate of abatement stays at 27 percent.

The worst-off 200,000 children get nothing- they remain invisible and left further behind - Cut Price Kids indeed.

• Susan St John CNZM QSO is an economist from New Zealand. She is a lecturer at the University of Auckland and spokesperson for the Child Poverty Action Group. St John graduated with a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Auckland in 1979.
• First published in The Daily Blog. Republished with permission of the author.

The latest figures show beneficiaries owe $200 million more than the same time last year.

In this year's Budget, the Government gave those over 18 and earning $70,000 or less a $350 cost of living payment to help them with the effects of rising prices, but it refused to extend the payment to beneficiaries and superannuitants. Read more

He is adamant.

We might want to blame COVID and the war in Ukraine for our economic woes, he says. But everyone (except successive Governments) knows Government support for those in most need is not up to the task.

"When you look at the rate that living costs have climbed compared to support, struggling families are now far worse off as living costs continue to spiral out of control."

Tellingly, the NZ wait register for social housing has climbed to over 30,000 this year. Four years ago it was 5,500, he says.

The Budget hasn't addressed the problem either.

Yes, there's $27 a week (to a total of $350) for people earning less than $70,000 per year. But - that boost isn't for people on Winter Energy Payments. They're excluded.

That means people on core benefits who need that help the most won't qualify, Smith says.

Meantime, they're stressing about how they are going to put food on the table and get warm clothes and blankets to stop their children from catching the winter flu.

Research shows while household entitlements have increased in recent years, recipients continue to play catch up.

The reason: entitlements are never indexed against the cost of living increases.

Over the years their worth erodes, driving families deeper into an endless cycle of poverty and housing insecurity.

To illustrate his point, Smith says when the Social Security Act 1938 was passed, it offered ten income support benefits to give every New Zealander the right to a reasonable standard of living.

The Government firmly believed it was everyone's responsibility to ensure all New Zealanders were safeguarded from poverty and circumstances beyond their control.

"The Act removed the Government's classification of people as ‘worthy' or ‘unworthy poor', but people still think strongly about those on the benefit in a negative way," Smith says.

People who are forced into poverty through injury, illness or acts outside their control are not criticised for accessing welfare.

But long-term welfare beneficiaries often are - you will receive a mixed response varying from encouragement to insult, Smith says.

"Sadly, our country values some individuals more than others. We clearly, more often than not, value those who are in employment more than those who are not employed."

But every New Zealander, regardless of their employment status or income, is a valuable member of our community, Smith says.

So why do we disrespect tens of thousands of them by taking away their dignity and creating in them a sense of shame and hopelessness?

"We should be trying to identify a bright, dignified future of self-sustainability, where they can feel a sense of pride and a place in our communities, where every man, woman and child not only feels welcome, but is offered a long-term dry, warm, secure and affordable home with a liveable household income."

Source

• Supplied Monte Cecilia Trust

While job losses have been nowhere near as severe as the first lockdown in March last year, many thousands of whanau are still struggling to make ends meet, as COVID-19 restrictions remain in place.

Before the first positive case was detected in August, Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen said the labour market was running hot.

"Filled jobs were continuing to rise, more people across all industries were starting to get a little bit more work," he said.

"We saw before lockdown as well, much improved unemployment rates, but also a much improved under-utilisation rate. More Kiwis were getting into jobs, and those Kiwis who wanted to work a bit more, a few more hours a week, for example, they were getting that work as well." Read more

The UMR poll was commissioned by a super-group of NGOs who are pushing to release families from the severe constraints of poverty.

The group includes unions, social service NGOs, kaupapa Maori groups, churches, child poverty experts and other organisations across Aotearoa.

"Across New Zealand we are united in recognising that the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic has not fallen evenly, and this poll confirms that as a nation we are no longer willing to tolerate growing inequalities," says Jacqui Southey from Save the Children.

"We all want to work together and do our bit to ensure all of our team of five million have liveable incomes. We're in this together."

By keeping income support rates low the Government is choosing to lock more and more people into poverty, with the heaviest burden falling on Maori, Pacific peoples, women, disabled people and children, the group says.

"This poll shows that ensuring liveable incomes for all would be a popular move for the government, across the board, as well as the right thing to do," Janet McAllister from Child Poverty Action Group says.

She says 66 percent of those with household incomes over $100,000 agree income support should be increased for people who are less financially fortunate than themselves.

"Our compassionate and inclusive approach to caring for the most vulnerable during COVID-19 outbreaks served us well. We must take the same common sense approach to ensure everyone, whether they are working, caring for children, living with a disability or illness, learning, or have lost their jobs before or because of COVID-19, has a liveable income," she says.

This month's Stats NZ figures show annual inflation for beneficiaries was almost three times higher than for all households in 2020.

Last week's Salvation Army's State of the Nation report 2021 paints a poor picture.

It shows an additional 23,000 children are living in households relying on income support. The report also outlined how the economic impact of Covid-19 looks set to further exacerbate unacceptable levels of poverty and inequity.

Dee-Ann Wolferston, CEO of Te Kahui Mana Ririki says Maori are disproportionately represented in the unskilled and low-paid jobs in our communities.

They are therefore are more likely to be impacted by job losses as result of COVID-19 according to a BERL study.

A particular concern is family violence escalating as result of cost pressures, job losses and housing shortages.

"In the past 12 months family violence has increased in areas as much as 33 percent, within which Maori are disproportionately impacted. Raising income support rates will reduce financial pressures for whanau Maori who are already in crisis," Wolferston says.

"Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised to govern for all New Zealanders but right now many members of our communities are being locked into poverty by low income support rates," says Ruby Powell from ActionStation.

"The time for excuses is up."

Source

• Scoop
• Image: NewstalkZB